Originally part of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colony settlement, the land that has become Sienna Plantation was first settled by Captain William Hall and Captain David Fitzgerald, who, in 1824, located their farms on the east bank of the Brazos River. Fitzgerald died shortly after making his claim, and his property in the northern portion of Sienna Plantation was eventually sold to J. B. Capels, who established a trading post and tavern for early settlers at Oyster Creek.
After the Texas Revolution and the final battle at San Jacinto, the area now known as Fort Bend County continued to prosper. The efforts of the early settlers attracted the attention of a newcomer to the Republic of Texas, Jonathan D. Waters. A strong-willed and intelligent planter from South Carolina, Waters arrived in 1840 and, recognizing the potential for commerce, set about acquiring the claims of Hall and Capels. By 1860, this land was known as the Waters Plantation and included more than 6,500 acres dedicated to cultivating sugar cane, cotton and other crops. The plantation even had its own shipping wharf on the Brazos River, where paddlewheel ships docked to deliver supplies and pick up sugar, corn and cotton produced on the plantation. A brick mill, sawmill, two sugar mills and some 80 houses were located on the property, along with the impressive Waters mansion, which overlooked a pecan orchard along the Brazos River. A sugar barn built by Waters in 1849 still stands.
Waters was known throughout Texas for the empire he built on thousands of acres of productive land. President and major stockholder of a railroad that served 12 plantations, he produced millions of pounds of sugar, hundreds of bales of cotton and thousands of bricks each year, shipping them by rail to Houston and Galveston. With the beginning of the War Between the States, however, Southern fortunes declined. Sugar prices crashed just after the war. Waters, in failing health, witnessed the demise of his empire. Upon his death in 1872, his widow sold the plantation to Thomas A. Pierce for $50,000 to pay off debts.
